"Bite me" - Chapter 3: Change - by Nanna Andersen

Josh sat at his desk in his class at Palamont City's High School. Sat with a stack of papers that he had no idea what to do with. He wanted to help these kids expand there knowledge, but if they had no interest in what he had to offer, what was the point then?

The door to his class opened and Josh turned his head to see Amber step in; head bended towards the floor, arms tucked around the books they used in his class. She didn't even look at him, instead she rushed to her seat at the back of the classroom. 

Josh kept on following her movement with his eyes. It had been the same on the bus earlier this morning. Usually she would look up at him, smile and say a quick "Hallo professor Fields." but not today. Josh tried telling himself it was just the Friday morning flue: when the kids were all exhausted form a whole week of school and really just wanted to welcome the weekend with open arms. But that hadn't been it. Something else was different about his straight A student. He just couldn't put his finger on what. 

Amber opened her text book, the one about the 21th century's literature. Josh had picked out that book himself. He still remembered the argument he had had with the other teachers about his choice. 

Miss Jenkins was, what Josh would call, conservative. When he told her that he wanted to get new books for his classes, she had met him with a hoarse laugther. Saying, they had always taught english literature from the 19th century. Her argument had, in Josh's eyes, been invalid. In her opinion they needed to give the future rulers of their country an understanding of where their roots lay. Josh had looked at her with a lifted eyebrow, but only halfway. He had never been able to do a perfect eyebrow-lift. Then he had looked at her, deep into her old, wise eyes and whispered "Why linger in the past, when it is the future they will rule?"

Josh smiled just by the thought of it. That had made her shut up. And he had gotten his text books. Of course literature from the good old times were important, but to him it was just as important to live in the now as knowing of the past.

Amber brushed her bangs behind her ear exposing the small silver ring in her earflip. She looked so concentrated, so at peace with herself. Josh got out of his seat and walked to her desk. He knocked on the desk and Amber jumped in her chair. She hurried up closing the book and smiled up at him. 

He pointed at the book. "How do you like it?"

She shrugged and stroke the cover wrapped in old newspapers. "It's... different." she said avoiding his eyes at any cost.

Josh braided his fingers together on his lap. "Well," he said, nodding towards the book. "Some times different is better."

Amber snorted. "Or some times different is a freak."

Josh stood up and walked back to his desk in front of the blackboard. At the halfway point, he turned back to face Amber. "I think different," he said. Amber's eyes rose to meet his. "is exactly what this city needs." out the corner of his eye, he caught half of a smile from his student.

As the bell rang to lunch all his students rushed to the door. "Mr. Davids," Josh yelled to overpower the screaming of over a hundred students running to the cafeteria. Matthew Davids stopped in the door, other students pushed him back into the classroom. 

"What's up mr. F?" he said as he leaned his ass on the edge of one of the front desks. 

Josh crossed his arms over his chest. "To you, it is professor Fields." the brat rolled his eyes and chewed his gum a little harder opening his mouth to share the leftovers of his breakfast. His teeth had with certainty not seen the shadow of toothpaste, therefore the gum.

For a moment the two of them just stood. Awaiting each other's next move. Then Matthew rubbed his hands together. "If that's all, can I go?"

Josh stood up and walked to the door, closing it. "No," he said. "No, you cannot."

"Am I in trouble?" he asked without a care in the world. Josh watched him. He kept looking at the door as though he had to be somewhere else. His hands were shaking. When Matthew saw Josh staring at his hands, he shoved them into the pockets of his sweatshirt.

"You tell me." Matthew didn't seem to understand, so Josh sat back onto his desk. He pulled a clean paper out of his bag and handed it to the student in front of him. "Here." 

Matthew took it without a word, so Josh continued. "You go home right after school, and then you write me that essay."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you give me no choice but to give you a F."

Matthew didn't answer. For a second Josh thought he saw a hint of fear in the eyes of the fried brain in front of him. He did not like that little brat, but everyone deserved a second chance. Josh could give him that. Matthew stuffed the paper in his bag and headed for the door, leaving Josh alone with his thoughts.

And he did think. All the way down to the teacher's office. And those thoughts pointed towards one single target. A young beauty called Jasmine. Josh did not even know of her last name. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know much about her. Her name was Jasmine, Jazz for short... she was new in town... her eyes were green... what else? He couldn't think of anything. And yet he had felt the urge to ask her out. Two things had played in to that. First of all, Arrow had bit her, and he feared for his K-9. The other reason was Jasmine herself. She was different, and as he had told Amber, maybe different was exactly what this town needed. Maybe it was what he needed.

Josh opened the door to the teacher's office and was met by the smiles of the rest of the staff.

"Ah! Professor Fields!" Principal Roberts rushed to him. With him he had...

"Jasmine?" Josh burst, sqeezing his eyes together to make sure what he saw was real. It really was her. In all her beauty. 

"I see you already known miss Smith." Roberts said clapping his hands together in excitement. "That's good. Miss Smith is our new intern. She is currently studying english at Palamont City's University, but you probably already know that," Josh did not know that. "Anyway, she is going to be here part time until she has taken her final exam. While here, she will be helping you out with your classes."

"Is that so?" Josh couldn't hide a smile. He offered Jasmine his hand and she took it. Her hand was just as warm as the other day. He studied it. Small scars showed where Arrow had buried her teeth. All of a sudden his stomach tied a knot. His eyes moved to her's. "I'm looking forward to our future teamwork, miss Smith."

Jasmine tightened her grib around his hand. And for the first time since their goodbye at his house, she spoke. "I can only say the same thing, professor Fields."

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So this is the part where I would usually write "To be continued" but due to being able to copy the text from this site, there will be no more parts of the story on here. I made this decision from the start "a prologue + 3 sample chapters" and that is what I have given you. 

I hope you have found some enjoyment in this story, and if you wish to continue reading it, I will post a link at the end of each of my Saturday-posts to the story. 

I still haven't decided wether or not I will give this a try in the "real world" but I might.

For now...

Keep Calm and Write On.

- Nanna.

"Bite me" - Chapter 2: The first time - by Nanna Andersen

"I'm sorry about just barging in," Jasmine said while exposing her ear from the chestnut brown hair. "but I'm new to this city and don't really know anyone." she sqeezed her eyes together.

Josh wasn't really sure why he said what he said, but he ended up saying it anyway. "Well, you do now. My name is Josh Fields." Arrow howled behind him and rubbed her snout against his thigh. He tripped forward and look over his shoulder. "And this is Arrow." he added, stepping aside to introduce the white and dark grey siberian husky of eight years of age. 

Jasmine squatted down and streched her arm out towards Arrow, but stopped at the midway point. "May I?" she asked and looked up at Josh. He did an approving hand gesture and told Arrow to come out from behind him. She was reluctant at first, but as Jasmine's hand came closer, Arrow took in the smell and suddenly Josh witnessed something he never before had seen:

Jasmine screamed as Arrow's teeth ingraved themselves into her skin. Time moved in slowmotion. It was as though Josh watched himself from the outside and he saw everything like it was. Saw himself try hard to get Arrow away from Jasmine. He saw the fear in the newcomer's eyes as Arrow tightened her grib and shook its head form side to side. Jasmine's armedmoved accordingly to Arrow's movement like a slave. Josh's other self resorted to the last thing he thought he would ever find himself doing. He hit his dog. 

Arrow, who in all her eight years had never experienced the fury of her master, whimpered under the force of his hand and with that she let go of Jasmine's hand. Josh pushed Arrow outside in the yard and hurried Jasmine inside to see to her wound. As the door closed behind him, time moved normally and he was within himself once again. 

"I'm so sorry!" he said desperately as he moved with Jasmine to the sink. "She doesn't act like that normally! I don't know what's with her..."

Jasmine's eyes were closed and her head bended backwards. "How bad is it?" she said. Josh sent a look to her hand and examined the damaged caused by Arrow's teeth. He bid his lip and didn't answer his guest, which worried her. Instead he opened for the waterflow.

"Here," he said and drenched a cloth in the warm water. He twined it around her hand. "Hold it there." she did as he said and he bowed down under the sink to find the first-aid kit. 

Outside the endless howling from Arrow speared through his heart. She had always been able to behave herself. Never had he had any trouble with raising her to be the best dog possible. When he bought her the saleslady had warned him that the siberian husky was one of the more aggressive breeds. However, he had never seen that in arrow. Now he feared what he would have to do with her. 

He had heard horror tales about owners who were forced to put their dogs to sleep because of assault on another human. He didn't want to lose Arrow, even if she had acted in the wrongs. There had to be a way for him to convince Jazz to not press charges. There had to be. 

"Find anything down there?" Jasmine asked and by the suprise of her words, Josh hammered his head into one of the sink pipes. He cursed and stood up with the first-aid kit.

Jasmine had lowered her head and was now looking directly at him. She wasn't scared anymore. Didn't even look mad. Josh was happy. That had to be a good thing. He opened the kit and took the bandages. Jasmine removed the cloth and the disgust was painted on her face. The cloth had removed most of the blood, which left her with four deep holes in her hand. Josh could not even begin to think of all the bacterium hidden on Arrow's teeth. Hopefully Jasmine would not suffer an infection. 

He began wrapping her hand in the white bandages. She didn't say anything. It worried Josh. He needed her to understand. To go away from here with a smile instead of heading to the police office.

"You know," he began. "Arrow usually doesn't act that way." 

Jasmine shrugged. "I guess she doesn't like me then." Josh saw the disappointment in her eyes. She looked up at him. The mint green eyes shining like they had done outside. "I'd hoped she would. But I'm probably more of a cat person." 

That still didn't explain Arrow's behavior. She had seen cats before. Hell, she even played with them from time to time whenever one dared to enter the yard. They knew what they were getting into; A brawling match with the unbeaten champion. But doing one of these matched she had never hurt the cats. All she ever did was push them around until they got tired of her and walked away. She would follow them to the fence and stand up to watch they walk off into the sunset. When she then came back into the house she would lay her head on Josh's thigh and look at him with her eyes shining from the victory. And he would rubb her head and call her a good dog.

He decided to not tell Jasmine about Arrow's love for cats. He didn't want her thinking Arrow had something personal against her. So he just agreed with her and said that had to be the reason. He tied the bandages in a bow to seal it off and Jasmine twisted her wrist to test the mobility of her hand. It looked perfectly fine. 

"Well..." Jasmine said, but didn't continue. She rubbed her hands against each other and looked everywhere but at Josh.

A scratching could be heard on the door and Josh peeped over Jasmine's shoulder. He bit his lip. It hurted as Arrow's wining got louder. He couldn't keep it out. 

Josh shook his head and tried to say something, but Jasmine held up her hand to stop him. "It's okay." she said and stroke his shoulder. Her touch was warm. Like honey in a cup of tea on a winter afternoon. "I'll see you around, I guess." she turned away from him and her long hair hit his chest in the turn.

"Jazz?" he cried as her fingers closed around the doorknob. Her gorgeous face turned to see him. "I want to make it up to you. Would you allow me to take you out for coffee some time?" his heart was pounding, and he was sure it would burst out of his chest in a minute. He couldn't believe himself. It wasn't in his nature to act so direct. Maybe he thought that all hope had already went out of the window, so he had nothing else to lose.

Jasmine opened the door and stepped aside while Arrow rushed in and hit behind Josh's legs. He didn't pay her any attention, his eyes locked on the beauty at his door. She stepped over the doorstep. "I like my coffee with caramel cream and whipped cream on top." she closed the door behind her, leaving Josh alone with Arrow, who had never looked smaller.

To be continued...

Keep Calm and Write On.

- Nanna.